Project:
By: LaMar Gayles
By collaborating with a local steel worker and forklift driver in the Southland area of Chicago Heights who works with found metal in his everyday life, I hope to commission a piece of jewelry which examines process in "DIY" art practices while too exploring the cultural, historical, metaphysical, and social histories of the materials being used in the project. Specifically, the DIY artist was given a piece of "Nevada Purple" Chalcedony which he will use to produce a jewelry object which draws inspiration from his previous creative expression in metal. This practice of creative collaboration, critical interpretation of materiality, and attempts to create objects inspired by historical moments (historical reproduction) pulls from the field of Experimental Archeology which seeks to utilize such methodologies as a mode of experiential interpreting artifacts and their meaning. By doing this I hope to draw connections between the DIY movements in the twentieth centuries and their descendent traditions in the present day. Finally, this project aims to illustrate the Post-war appreciation and re-invested fascination with a metaphysical consumption of gemstones. Through this project I hope to redevelop what is currently known as Archaeo-gemology to consider more experiential and interpretive methodologies as the field is stuck in a proclivity to only analyze gemstones through quantitative methods and stylistic taxonomies.
Images from creative consultation with local Southland Chicago Area Artist, Eric Suderow. His sculpture The Iron Man pulls from several 1990s Counterculture films including Iron Giant.
Background Information On Chalcedony:
Found throughout many parts of the world in different colors Chalcedony is a mineral and semi-precious gemstone, which has been implemented in the artistic, cultural, and sartorial practices of many different groups reaching back to at least the New Kingdom of Egypt and still today. This particular example of a purple Chalcedony (a variety common in parts of the Western United States specifically in California and Nevada) is a cabochon which is sizable in karat weight (around twenty-eight karats) and with a precisely defined shape and a well polished oval shape. Inside of this stone is an inclusion of a peculiarly large amount botryoidal, which is a natural juxtaposition anomalous to many researchers in the field of mineralogy. This particular specimen was found in the American Southwest (specifically a small mine in Nevada) and was crafted by lapidary (gemstone-carver or practitioner of glyptic art) C.P. The glyptic (carved gemstone or lapidary) artist chose to form the piece into a cabochon (a smoothed top carved stone with curving smooth bottom.)
This stone embodies centuries (perhaps even millenia) of varying cultural practices around the world from spiritual, religious, and metaphysical, scientific and commercial. Chalcedony has been utilized for artistic, expressive, and industrial products for centuries and is known to have a wide range of social associations. In his text (the earliest historically documented treatise on gemstones) Natural History Book XXXVII, Pliny the Elder describes the properties, names, and characteristics of numerous gemstones that were known to persons in Ancient Greece. Pliny describes Chalcedony as a stone which provided itself to craftspersons in Ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt as a precious material meant for jewelry and spiritually potent (powerful) enough to serve as amulets against powerful negative forces. Pliny also acknowledges that this material was commonly used for cameos (carved/relief tradition on gemstones) by these same groups. Archaeologists, have proven through mineralogical testing that these same stones were utilized to make spear tips during the Bronze Age in Rome.
The lapidary Christopher Peek carved this object with consideration for its metaphysical prowess as outlined by scholar Albertus Magnus in his text the The Book Of Minerals which outlined the majority of the current West’s epistemological frameworks (ways of being/embodying and using) gemstones in cultural practices. Albertus referenced chalcedony as a stone which promotes winning and prosperity, while “preserving the powers of the body.” Understanding the way Chalcedony (like other gem-materials) was to be endowed fantastical or metaphysical powers to promote well-being.
This specific stone (a dark lilac or lavender variant of Chalcedony) has an aura that evokes an overwhelmingly calm energy as it is held in the hands of a viewer, which in turn produces a sense of serenity as well as a cold touch. The specimen is subtly cloudy, yet has a strong translucens which allows light to shine through the dark veil of botryoidal.
The stone was acquisitioned by gemstone collector and conceptual jeweler LaMar Gayles for an experimental project on metaphysical jewelry and its evolution during the “DIY” (Do It Yourself) counterculture era (circa 1940s-90s) in the United States of America.
Visual Research: (Images of Similar Artist's work)
Rhonda Wheatley
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FULL TITLE: Empath Protector. Helps empaths create healthy energetic boundaries so that they may clearly distinguish their own emotions, needs, and desires from those of others.
MEDIA: Vintage mannequin hand, wooden beads, natural fluorite crystal octahedrons, and acrylic paint.
YEAR: 2017
(Borrowed from artist's website at https://www.rhondawheatley.com/new-page)
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INSTALLATION TITLE: Elixir Stills and Cure Bottles. Activate by gazing into jars and bottles. Gazing must be 100% voluntary.
INDIVIDUAL BOTTLE TITLES:
Radical self-acceptance elixir (formulated for self-esteem issues) Self Love and acceptance elixir (calibrated for the self-hating) Discernment for empaths; cure for poor boundaries Elixir for relinquishing the need to control situations and other people Find your power; cure for those easily taken advantage of Perceive inner beauty; cure for fixation on outer appearances of self and others
GENERAL MEDIA: Healing intent and energy, incantations, moss, flower petals, herbs, sea horses, cicadas, snake bones, snakeskin sheddings, sea shells, sand, wasp nests, succulent plants, various crystals, including amber, mica flakes, and pyrite, and more.
YEAR: 2017
(Borrowed from artist's website at https://www.rhondawheatley.com/new-page)
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These two artworks were made by Chicago artist Rhonda Wheatley who often utilizes natural materials like stones to reflect on their metaphysical prowess and abilities.
Daniel Pope
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| Images of Daniel Pope (Borrowed from https://luna.lib.uchicago.edu/luna/servlet/view/search?q=Daniel%20pope&sort=creator%2Cculture%2Cdate%2Cstyle_or_period&os=0) |
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| Image of Cross-like Crown (Borrowed from https://luna.lib.uchicago.edu/luna/servlet/view/search?q=Daniel%20pope&sort=creator%2Cculture%2Cdate%2Cstyle_or_period&os=0) |
Daniel Pope also known as The Sandman, was a Chicago artist connected with the Black Arts Movement and made fantastic wearable regalia from found jewelry in Chicago's South and West sides. The jewelry he gathered was found through a practice he undertook of cleaning the streets of the neighborhoods he roamed.
Sources:
https://luna.lib.uchicago.edu/luna/servlet/view/search?q=Daniel%20pope&sort=creator%2Cculture%2Cdate%2Cstyle_or_period&os=0
https://www.rhondawheatley.com/
Strand, Eva. (2010). Experimental Textile Archaeology.
Lüle, Çig
dem. 2011. "Non-destructive gemmological tests for the identification of ancient gems".
Gems of Heaven / Ed. by Chris Entwistle and Noël Adams. London : British Museum. 1-3.
Interview:
Lüle, Çig
dem (Archaegemology and the Field), LaMar Gayles via email, March 23, 2019.
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ReplyDeleteI saw this artist, Daniel Arsham, at Expo. He is making work with volcanic ash, quartz, pyrite, and other minerals. Here is a link to one piece but there are lots more. Not totally aligned with your research but something interesting to look at.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.danielarsham.com/collection/holding-hands-selenite